The Future of Nonalignment

The best way one can predict the future of non alignment is to see how far the original bases of the policy con tinue to exist and still hold good, and whether these bases are likely to remain in the foreseeable future. In the writer's view, the still largely bipolarized world politics, the continuing emo tional need to demonstrate independence of policy and action in world affairs, the still valid ideological and economic bases, the relaxation of cold-war pressures on the nonaligned—all these and more—seem to indicate that nonalignment has not yet out lived the conditions in which the policy originated, or its utility to many nations of Asia and Africa. It continues to offer to the present adherents (which include about half of the inde pendent states of the world) as well as potential followers, a preferred choice in foreign policy and relations in the present as well as foreseeable future.